New Zealand’s Capital City is Running Out of Water

New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, cannot provide sufficient water to satisfy demand. This means that water restrictions for the coming summer will almost be inevitable.

Wellington Water reported to local authorities that it could not adequately maintain its ageing water infrastructure due to a lack of funding. Many assets are well past their nominal end-of life.

The region is plagued by leaking pipes, overflowing sewers and Wellington Water is constantly inundated by incident requests.

“It is now probable that more severe water use restrictions, including total residential outdoor water use bans, and potentially restrictions, on internal usage within private properties, will be required this summer and in the following years until major investments are completed,” Wellington Water wrote in its report (pdf).

It emphasized the fact that there are so many leaks, which is the main reason why water consumption has increased.

” We are seeing water consumption daily that is comparable to what we normally expect during summer,” the report stated.

Due in part to low funding, the company stated that its priority was shifted toward reactive maintenance and away from planned maintenance. This had not been “ideal .”

” We are putting pressure on reactive maintenance budgets in order to free up funding for planned maintenance activities,” the statement said.

Wellington Water noted also that New Zealand’s businesses face a severe labour shortage and future wage pressures will increase as inflation increases.

” We are looking at ways to keep our employees,” the statement said.

The company stated that it could not meet its goal of zero sewage discharges earlier in March.

It estimates that it needed over $300 million (US$190 million) per year in infrastructure investment to replace aged assets, meet higher operating costs, and increase environmental performance (pdf).

Centralised Water Reform

This comes at a time when the federal government makes a big push to centralise all of the nation’s water resources and have them managed by four public water agencies.

The Ardern administration claims that there was “historical underinvestment” in local councils and stricter water safety regulations and environmental regulations. They also claim the government must account for the growth of the public.

“The investment needed to fix our failing systems and to build and maintain the required infrastructure in the future has been estimated at between $120 billion (US$75.5 billion) and $185 billion over the next 30 years. “This will not be within the reach of many communities,” said the Department of Internal Affairs on its website ..

Many local councils have expressed deep concerns, particularly pertaining to the significant loss of local voice when it comes to their regions’ water supplies.

Oliver Hartwich, the executive director of the New Zealand Initiative think tank, told The Epoch Times that the federal government in Wellington accounted for over 90 percent of the taxes collected in the country, meaning local councils lacked tax funds to address local issues.

” “It would make a lot more sense if we had strong communities with local income taxes, so that the local communities can plan for what they want,” he stated.

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